View Single Post
  #4  
Old 04-18-2012, 07:03 PM
Mazikeen Mazikeen is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 64
Default

I'm going a bit on a limb here, but I'll make the bold statement, this will not happen. Books have been written and pages could be posted of text explaining why but the flathead died for a good reason, it was replaced with designs with far great thermal effeciency than any flathead could ever achieve regardless of modification.
I was extremely surprised to see this post and did find some nice writeups about this offering, nothing technical, but it surprised me with the technology today that development dollars would be spent on revisiting the flathead. They weren't talking old school sidevalves either, they were wrapping this engine up over 10k rpm, a far cry from an old ford and beyond what all but the most proficeint flathead players ever moved air through that design. But we are talking horsepower here and you guys are discussing torque, and that is BMEP, thermal efficiency and volumetric efficiency. BMEP can be addressed to a certain extent with engineering work on valve timing and compression, but the engine by design is severely limited when moving into thermal and volumetric efficiency.
When the market calls for it and we truly find current offerings lacking, you will more likely see small displacement 4 cycle engines of a long stroke design, utilizing direct injection and variable valve timing to overcome the necessary compromise for low end torque and high end horsepower. The ultimate monster for the application would naturally be a diesel, but even the hyper diesels of today's technology have currently maxed materials out to the point where they still would not accomplish a viable engine within the weight requirements of the two wheel off road market.
There is my opinion! take it as intended, I'm sitting at home listening to Andy griffith show for the umpteenth time till the kids go to bed and ran out of things to browse on ebay...........
Reply With Quote